10 Best Homeschooling Essentials For The New Academic Year:
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Homeschool Essentials – The stay-at-home phase is not getting over yet. Hence, I see no hopes of getting the schools opened very soon. But fortunately, the academic year has started already and it is in a virtual mode for now.
Homeschooling and virtual learning are the new normal for parents and kids, hence we all need to prep up with homeschooling essentials.
I already had prepped up to homeschool my daughter for the current academic year. But the schools have started taking initiatives to train the kids through online sessions.
So, I have to sit with my daughter and even I have to attend that class virtually. But, my job doesn’t end here.
As soon as the class starts, I start taking notes on behalf of my daughter. I have to explain the activities to her that she needs to perform in front of the teachers. Moreover, I have to work even after the sessions get over.
Yes, I need to go through the offline videos to understand a few more subjects and take down the given assignments. So a mama is studying online and offline these days.
While living this new normal life of virtual learnings and homeschooling, I have one relief by my side; that my child is absolutely safe from the outside world which has become harmful n several manners.
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So, while juggling among the online & offline sessions along with homeschooling; I have created a schedule for my daughter and I also have made a list of Homeschooling Essentials
10 Best Homeschooling Essentials For 2020
Well, my daughter is in UKG so the essentials mentioned here are for her age (5 years).
1. Art & Craft Class – Art Supplies
Usually, Monday is for the Art & Craft session. And sometimes I teach her some Art, Craft, Painting, and Drawing activities. Hence, I have stocked up the below-mentioned Art & Craft Essentials.
- Craft Paper
- Craft Scissors For Kids
- Glue Stick
- Crayons
- Self Adhesive Googly Eyes
- Pencils
- Drawing books
- Water Colors
- Paint Brush
- Brush Pens
2. Laptop / Desktop with Internet Connection
The basic need for virtual learning and homeschooling is to have a personal computer with an Internet connection.
It helps your child to attend online sessions and also helps you to access the study material online.
3. Dry Erase Board
Remember those old-style blackboards we used to have at schools. Cleaning and dusting them used to make me sneeze for hours. Dry Erase Boards are the saviors. You can use them with convenience.
While you can teach the child to write initially, the child can practice writing on a dry erase board with ease.
The trio of Metal Board + Marker + Metallic Duster makes writing fun for my daughter.
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4. Printer
Yes, it is an expensive affair to have a printer at home. But it is definitely one of the most important homeschooling essentials.
Printers are really helpful to take prints of the worksheets and assignments. You don’t need to wait for long to get the prints when you have a printer handy always. It is also useful to take the prints of planners and food charts to manage your weekly schedules.
Look for a color printer that will help you print the colorful worksheets for your child’s academic and artistic needs too. Buy Home Printers On Amazon
5. Books And Notebooks
Yes, you need to have some updated books to be handy for either kind of learning virtual or homeschooling. They need to be competitive with the formal schools so that your child remains updated with the school studies.
You need to have age-appropriate notebooks that will help your child to write better.
Like my daughter needs the three-lined books for alphabets and words, and the checked notebooks for numbers.
6. A Good Planner
Yes, you read it right. You need to have a great planner to stay organized with home and homeschooling chores.
I am a very forgetful mother, mommy brain you know. Hence, I prefer planning my week ahead. And I use time blockers for the tasks.
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I add up the personal and professional goals of the week in my planner, which helps me remember all the important things to do which I tend to forget always.
The best thing to remember the most important tasks is to use sticky notes like Post-it. Sticky notes are super helpful for me to get things done on time and never to forget any important work.
And believe me, it also forces me not to procrastinate much these days. Having all those tasks ticked gives a great feeling of achievement for sure.
7. Engaging Resources
It’s really very important to keep the kids engaged with the homeschooling life. If you do not offer interesting content to them, they are going to get bored.
To make them excited about homeschooling, you need to be excited about the same. Hence, invest in helpful and fun resources that will help you keep the kids glued to the homeschooling sessions.
The fun part of schools should not be missed in your home school too. Try to make the days more engaging and fun with age-appropriate resources.
8. Homeschooling Storage
I have dedicated one part of my wardrobe to storing the school essentials. I prefer buying things in bulk which helps me save some bucks on bulk buying.
So, I stock up a lot of pens, pencils, sticky notes, crayons, watercolors, poster colors, Sharpeners, and Erasers in huge quantities that can last for at least a year’s time.
Having a good storage place is helpful to store all these essentials in an organized manner. An organized place dedicated to storing school essentials is very much helpful for the kids to pick anything that they want without creating a mess.
9. Dedicated Place For Studies
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This essential cannot be ignored for a successful homeschooling journey. Create a dedicated corner for homeschooling which is filled with positivity. Keep it decluttered yet full of colors to give it a vibrant feel because kids love the vibrant colors.
A pleasant, neat, and tidy study corner helps me to cheer my daughter up. The stationery is arranged on the study table by my daughter regularly as she loves to organize her own study table.
The pencils are kept sharpened and the sharpeners and erasers are kept in the dedicated compartments of the stationery organizer.
This helps me keep her busy even before school hours.
10. Patience
Patience is the key to sail through all those storms. Yes, it’s truly a key essential in homeschooling too. Kids can be unmanageable sometimes.
You may get overwhelmed with several tasks to do apart from teaching your kids. I too get nervous when I have several things added in the TO-DO list and none of them are ticked.
But patience is something that helps me sail through all such situations. Homeschooling and virtual learnings are tough tasks for us, moms. But staying calm and positive helps us to get through it.
All these homeschool essentials will help you stay organized to manage your home and the academics of your child. Invest in them and you may feel more calm and productive throughout the week.
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Hannah Hoffman says
Great list! I’m going to start homeschooling next year so this is really helpful.
Caressa Walker says
I definitely agree with the dry erase board because their are so many activities you can do with them. I would even get each kid one so they can do independent learning.
Sara says
I couldn’t live without my printer! Next month I’ll be printing a lot of stuff to get ready for our school year.
Jennifer Bradley says
I like that all of the items on your list are not physical things. Patience is a definite must when it comes to homeschooling!
Melinda Cummings says
Great list.
Now if only I could buy patience lol
Abby says
Arts and crafts supplies scare me a bit as I think of some of them and imagine the kind of damage they can wreck on our walls! Lol I have to keep reminding myself that it’s just necessary and comes with the homeschool package
Cristina says
My son will be 3 soon and even though I wouldn’t say that we’re homeschooling, we do many activities. So this list definitely comes in handy. Thank you for sharing!
Monica says
I love that patience is on the list. I definitely need to pick up some of that. Thanks for these great tips!!
Chloe says
Why had I not thought about getting a dry erase board? My 2 year old would love it and it would help us start doing some lessons!